The performance of US institutional investors declined by more than 5% last quarter because of volatility in global capital markets, though they outperformed the returns of US equities.

According to the Trust Universe Comparison Service, or Tucs, public pension schemes fared slightly better with a -4.99% return against a -5.32% return by foundations and endowments.

Corporate pension schemes returned -5.57%.

The Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 index, one of the broadest benchmarks of the US stock market performance, declined 9.52% during the quarter, which ended with five consecutive months of market losses.

Hilarie Green, head of Wilshire Analytics’ performance reporting division, said: “The performance we saw in the first quarter was expected based on market turmoil globally.”

The decline in stock markets coincides with the weaker performance of foundations and endowments, whose median portfolio has 61% of its portfolio in equities against 57% of the median public pension scheme and 59% for the median corporate pension scheme.

The US bond market, in which the median pension scheme was more heavily invested than the foundation or endowment, performed better in the quarter.

The exchange traded fund that tracks the Lehman Aggregate Bond Index had a slight gain in the first three months of the year.